


Carnival of Rust

by hiza-chan (callunavulgari)



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe - Assassins, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-11
Updated: 2012-07-11
Packaged: 2017-11-09 14:59:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 449
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/456796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/callunavulgari/pseuds/hiza-chan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"You should have walked out on me when the world first started burning, Rox.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Carnival of Rust

**Author's Note:**

> Tumblr Music Meme, #33. [Carnival of Rust [Poets of the Fall]](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=we3EJLTV650)
> 
> It's all a game, avoiding failure, when true colors will bleed  
> All in the name of misbehavior and the things we don't need  
> I lust for after no disaster can touch, touch us anymore  
> And more than ever, I hope to never fall, where enough is not the same it was before
> 
> Yeah, feed the rain  
> 'cause I'm thirsty for your love dancing underneath the skies of lust  
> Yeah, feed the rain  
> 'cause without your love my life ain't nothing but this carnival of rust
> 
> Don't walk away, don't walk away, oh, when the world is burning  
> Don't walk away, don't walk away, oh, when the heart is yearnin

Paris at midnight suits Roxas. Rain slicks the insides of his elbows, plastering his hair to his brow and clumping his eyelashes together. If Axel squints, he’d almost think the other man was crying. The ends of his trench coat drip red, and Axel follows their path downwards, tumbling downwards to mix with the rain. The top of the Eiffel Tower isn’t the most hidden location for two assassins, but then, nowhere really is right now.

“They’ll kill us, y’know,” he tells Roxas, not pulling his gaze away from where the blood is still dancing with the rain, waltzing all the way down, until they expire on the pavement so far below.

Roxas glances at him, pulling his knees up to his chest and burying his face in them. At that moment, he looks not a day older than sixteen—that same scrawny kid that Axel had pulled from the rubble of his parent’s house, teary-eyed and covered in soot. “I know,” Roxas whispers, muffled by the fabric of his coat.

“We should have gotten out before,” Axel says, because even now, on death’s door, he doesn’t know when to stop. He doesn’t know how to leave well enough alone and now he’ll never get the chance to learn. “We should have backed out while we still could. Before we got in too deep.

He thinks Roxas nods, but he’s distracted by the figures in black at the base of the monument, shoving tourists aside before finally drawing their guns. Axel listens to the panicked screams for a moment before turning away. They’ll come when they come. For now, he wants his last moments to be full of something that isn’t fear and gut-churning self-loathing.

“I should have just walked away back then,” Axel laughs, brushing a tear away furiously. “I should have just cut my ties back when I first found you. Raised you a proper kid. Taught you how to do calculus instead of how to load a gun. I could have passed you off as a brother—maybe a cousin—”

“That’s fucked up, Ax,” Roxas mutters. “I really didn’t know you were into shit like that.”

Axel rolls his eyes. “That’s not the _point_ , dumbass.” He smacks Roxas upside the head, lightly, because for all that they’re gonna die anyway, he doesn’t want it to be from his hand. He takes a deep breath. “Point is, I shoulda done right by you. You should have walked out on me when the world first started burning, Rox.”

“I should’ve,” Roxas concedes. “But I didn’t. You were worth waiting around for. That was enough.”

“Enough is not the same as it was before.”

“No,” Roxas whispers. “It isn’t.”


End file.
